Top N.W.T. doctor had cleared suicidal woman for release

An N.W.T. coroner's inquest heard on Thursday from the people who spoke with a Yellowknife woman in the final hours before she was gunned down by police.

The RCMP shot Karen Lander after she threatened them with a rifle during a standoff on March 14, 2012.

The president of the Canadian Medical Association, Dr. Anna Reid, spoke at the inquest in Yellowknife on Thursday.

Reid, a Yellowknife emergency room doctor, spoke to Lander the day before the shooting — Lander had been hospitalized because she was threatening to kill herself.

Lander was too drunk to be assessed that night, so a doctor admitted her involuntarily for up to 48 hours.

Reid, who spoke to Lander after the woman sobered up at about 4 a.m., said there was no evidence Lander had tried to kill herself. She added that Lander didn't remember making threats and denied wanting to die.

Like three previous doctors who made the same call, Reid said she felt it was safe to let Lander go home.

On Thursday, she told the inquest jury that she had no grounds to keep Lander against her will. Reid said had she questioned Lander's credibility, she would not have let her leave.

In the weeks before Lander's death, after she had lost custody of her sons, friends said Lander was drinking heavily, the inquest has heard.

One doctor said Lander had been on benders for days at a time, drinking a large bottle of liquor every day.

The inquest also heard from the last people to whom Lander reached out.

Her cousin, Sonia Akana, said Lander wasn't able to overcome the trauma of sexual and physical abuse that she had experienced growing up.

Akana told the inquest that Lander needed help and wasn't getting enough.

Akana added that during those final weeks, Lander's constant smile faded. She described Lander as being fixated on suicide.

The night before the shooting, Lander kept blacking out and talking about killing herself, the inquest was told.

On the morning of the shooting, Lander told her neighbour she would go to a friend's house, where she knew there were guns.

The RCMP constable who tried to negotiate with Lander is expected to testify on Friday.